Kaleidoscope Tutorial Part 1

Following the instructions in the book, "Magic Stack-n-Whack Quilts", carefully layer 8 repeats of your chosen fabric.  When lining up the layers, pin straight through, matching the pattern, then while holding the pin, use a second pin to carefully pin the layers without allowing them to slip or slide.  Take your time with this step.  Cut strips, then squares, then cut the squares in half to form 2 triangle "block kits" from each square.  A new blade is essential for this step, and use twice as many pins as you usually would.  Look for pins before cutting; move any pins that are in the way!   Cut 4 squares and 4 strips of background fabric for each block kit.  I line mine up at the sewing machine like this:

 Sew four triangles from your block kit, (focal fabric), by flipping the background triangle onto the focal fabric, sewing with the background fabric on top.  Take care to keep the edges lined up and use a scant 1/4" seam.

  Continue with the four rectangles. 

 The strip is much longer than your focal triangle, but just continue to sew to the end of the strip, then stitch the next one, assembly line fashion.

 Repeat with each block kit.  Cut the sewn pairs apart, making sure to keep all 8 pieces together.  Lay the pieced triangles on your ironing surface, with the focal fabric on top, and press flat, to "set the seam".

 Then gently press the seam toward the focal fabric, using a hot dry iron.

Next, repeat this step with the strip unit, first setting the seam with the focal fabric on top,

 then gently, pressing open, with the seam allowance pressed to the focal fabric.  The pressing instructions are very important while using this method, as pressing in the correct directions makes piecing the units much easier.

 Now make a stack that looks like this in preparation for the next step.  Make sure to keep the pieces for each block together - you don't want any surprises, and bias edges don't like to be unstitched.